Compare and contrast the Scrum approach to project management with conventional plan-based approaches as discussed in Chapter 23. Your comparison should be based on the effectiveness of each approach for planning the allocation of people to projects, estimating the cost of projects, maintaining team cohesion and managing changes in project team membership.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Planning allocation of people to projects
Scrum
Scrum handles people allocation informally. Team members ‘bid’ for features from
the product backlog to implement if they think that their expertise is appropriate.
Alternatively, the tasks can be allocated by the Scrum master.
There is no formal mechanism in Scrum for planning for project members
with very specific expertise to be temporarily allocated to a team. This need must
be identified by the Scrum master and he or she has to discuss how the expertise
A project plan is used to identify the parts of the system to be delivered and these
are specified in the requirements document. The expertise required for each part
can then be identified and the allocation of people to projects planned on that basis.
Estimating project costs
Scrum
Project costs are estimated based on the required delivery date for the software and
people working in the Scrum team. The functionality of the system is adjusted so
that some working system will always be delivered for the original cost estimation.
Of course, this may not be adequate for the customer and they have to become
involved in rescheduling the delivery of the system.
Plan-based development
Project costs are based on an analysis of the functionality specified in the
requirements document as well as the non-functional requirements of the system.
They may be adjusted to reflect team size and delivery schedule. It is normal for
costs to be underestimated and the final project to cost much more than originally
estimated. An average cost for team members is assumed.
Maintaining team cohesion
Scrum
Team member meet daily either face to face or electronically. Extensive informal
discussions and communications are encouraged. Team members negotiate work
to be done from the project backlog. This all leads to a shared feeling of product
ownership and a very cohesive team.
Plan-based development
Team cohesion is the responsibility of the project manager and he or she has to take
explicit actions to encourage this. The general approach relies on formal meetings
that are relatively infrequent and this does not lead to the development of a
cohesive team.
Managing changes in project team membership
Scrum
This is a topic that is rarely discussed in Scrum but is a fundamental problem
because so much information is informal and reliant on people remembering what
has been agreed. When someone leaves, it can be very difficult to bring a
replacement team member up to speed, especially if very little project
documentation is available.
The project management plan is based around expertise rather than individuals and
project documents should be available. Therefore, if a team member leaves, then a
new team member with comparable expertise can read what has been done and,
after understanding this, should be able to serve as a replacement.